Litmus test for my hair

Last week, when my neighbour popped over to ask if her red streaks were too red, I said "NO!! I love it. I want to get them too!" I had been contemplating trying out hair color for quite sometime, because one needs excitement in life. When I finally ran out of excuses, I was only looking for that slight nudge. Thanks to my conscious neighbour, I knew the moment had come. It helped that the book of essays by Nora Ephron had her praising colored hair streaks (Refer to 'On Maintenance').
So I set out one Saturday, with my friend Ashwin. We had a deal. If I helped him pick a Nehru jacket, he'd sit through my salon session. After 2 hours of roaming around the streets of Rajwada and gobbling up 8 flavoured pani puri (Regular, Jeera, Lasoon, Hajma hajam, Pudina, Lemon, Hing, Aamchur - in case you were curious) we found the perfect jacket for Ashwin and finally made it to the Selfie salon at C21 mall.
I explained to the stylist that I had virgin hair - I had never tried coloring them earlier. The lady who owns the place seemed to know her job well indeed. After a lot of tense moments, I decided to get purple streaks. 2 streaks only, I requested (FYI, Streaks aren't exactly cheap at 400 for one). As always, the stylist exclaimed about how thick and dense my hair were. I gently smiled and said "That's why I keep them short".
I crossed my fingers as they went about lightening my hair first (to ensure that the purple really popped out bright), and then applying the color. After an hour, they washed my hair, while I kept eyeballing at Ashwin, asking him if it was too purple. He only smiled sheepishly, not knowing how much was too much purple. They eventually put me in front of the mirror.  I prayed that it'll be one of those 'Princess Diaries' moments when Anne Hathaway gets transformed by the stylists. When I looked at myself, I only raised my eyebrows and asked "Is this purple??". I only saw traces of brown in my hair. The stylist assured me that they'd apply the color again, and it will be brighter.
The owner of the salon kept dropping by and assured me that this had never happened before. They used L'Oreal products, so there was no risk of counterfeits. She asked me if I applied something special on my hair. I shrugged and answered "Just Parachute oil and shampoo". Over the next hour, they reapplied the color, blow-dried the aluminium foils, ironed the foils - all in the hopes that my hair would turn purple. But my hair was adamant, and refused to absorb the purple. We accepted defeat, and surrendered by dropping the weapons. The salon guys refused to accept money, since they were unable to turn my hair into purple. I left the place, with brown hued streaks, and impressed with their customer service.
As for my hair, they are busy celebrating passing the agni pareeksha, and coming out mostly unscathed.
Picture credits : Mooseman

Comments

Mooseman said…
Streaks are against Indian culture.
~ Your hair
Iceman said…
So your hair basically purple nurpled your plans.
Anusha said…
@Vikas

I have short hair. That is also against Indian culture!

@Iceman

Yup. Everyone has a new name for the shade that my hair has turned into!

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